Ioften wondered whether Luthfullah Khan was a magician or a giant. A man of many facets, he continued to work towards his several interests to the ripe age of 95. It seemed as if he would defy death and carry on working as usual in his small, book-lined study at home while his lovely and devoted wife Zahida kept an eye on his needs and entertained all their guests with warmth and enthusiasm.

My first meeting with Luthfullah Khan Saheb took place in the early 1970s. I loved music, and had decided to use it as a theme for my graduation project. This included a calendar, record covers, posters, display cards and press ads. The entire project was bought by the EMI for Rs2,500 which, in those days, was a considerable amount for a student.

I was advised by Mansoor Bukhari, head of the EMI in Pakistan, to take my work to their ad agency, Kays Advertising, at West Wharf. There I met the two Khan brothers. Luthfullah Khan, together with his younger brother, ran the agency for 52 years.

Many years later, in the ‘80s, I met him and his wife through a mutual friend, and subsequently kept meeting them regularly. In 1990, I was touched when, one day, they turned up at my office to take me along to meet a young man who had the software for composing Urdu text. In those days composing in Urdu was a lengthy, painful and often frustrating exercise.

The handwritten text went back to the calligrapher several times until it turned out satisfactory. Luthfullah Khan, also a writer, had discovered the rare Urdu software which could help expedite the work and make life easier for those associated with publishing in Urdu, and was happy to share this with me as I was involved with children’s books in Urdu.

Luthfullah Khan, acknowledged as the biggest voice/music archivist of South Asia, was also a passionate photographer and author of eight books, but essentially he was a persistent organiser and collector. At the age of 80, he mastered the computer, and soon thereafter began to convert his priceless treasure of sound to digital media.

The living room in his house displays rare photographs and is lined with cabinets showcasing photography and sound recording equipment, coins, drawing instruments, stationery and much more. His archives also contain a large number of rare books.

Each item in his collection, each document was listed methodically, enabling him to retrieve anything within seconds.

Luthfullah Khan was born on November 25, 1916 in Madras (Chennai), India. From his childhood he had a fascination for music and singing. At the age of 19 he performed publicly on the Indian State Broadcasting Service, later known as the All India Radio.

From 1963 until 1988 he learnt in meticulous detail the intricacies of the Raga Darbari.

In 1951 Luthfullah Khan had bought an audio-recording machine with 22 spools of (magnetic) tapes for Rs1,146. He started by doing audio recordings of his mother’s voice. Later he started to experiment by recording music from Radio Pakistan.

Encouraged by the excellent quality of his recording, he continued with his hobby, and the rest is history. The tape recorder as well as the receipt have remained in his collection!

There are 42 volumes of his collection of music catalogues alone. But this is a smaller section, compared to the one on literature. He recorded the works of 800 poets, mostly in their own voices. He also interviewed several eminent authors and artists of Pakistan. Undoubtedly, Luthfullah Khan’s audio library encompasses a broad spectrum history of Indo-Pakistani music, literature, and religious lectures and verses. This monumental work at the individual’s level is unparalleled in the literary history of the subcontinent.

The Kamal-i-Fun Award for 2009 was conferred on Luthfullah Khan in November 2010 by the Pakistan Academy of Letters. In January 2011, a private TV channel recorded several interesting programmes in the form of interviews with him. These were conducted by Sania Saeed and were recorded in the presence of a live audience. I had the privilege of attending eight of them.

On August 14, 2011 he was awarded the President’s Pride of Performance medal for Literature/Archives, a befitting acknowledgement for an exceptional and illustrious career.

In the execution of all of Luthfullah Khan’s several passions: learning classical music, travelling, collecting, experimenting with photography or recording voices, his wife Zahida remained by his side throughout, supporting and assisting him with his every endeavour.

Luthfullah Khan has passed away, but his priceless ‘voices’ will remain with us forever.